


Suppress

by Write_To_You



Series: The Flux Trilogy [2]
Category: The Flash (TV 2014)
Genre: Angst, Barry and Frost Flirting, Crime Fighting Family, Developing Relationship, Drama, Established Relationship, F/M, Family, Family Fluff, Humor, Season/Series 05, Snowbarry Fam, Superheroes, Uncle Cisco, because why not
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-08-25
Updated: 2020-10-11
Packaged: 2021-03-07 03:00:54
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 9
Words: 8,119
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/26109838
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Write_To_You/pseuds/Write_To_You
Summary: As Caitlin and Barry try to figure out their new relationship, they are forced to take a look at why Nora doesn’t have cold powers..... or what happens if she does.
Relationships: Barry Allen & Caitlin Snow & Nora West-Allen, Barry Allen & Nora West-Allen, Barry Allen/Caitlin Snow, Caitlin Snow & Nora West-Allen, Cisco Ramon & Caitlin Snow, Flash/Killer Frost (DCU)
Series: The Flux Trilogy [2]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/1849717
Comments: 47
Kudos: 95





	1. Chapter 1

**Author's Note:**

> Welcome back everyone!! People seemed to really enjoy Flux, so here is the next installment of the story. Enjoy!

“So, let me get this straight,” Nora said. “An hour ago I looked totally different and I wasn’t completely your daughter?”

Nora, Caitlin and Barry were all seated in the STAR Labs lounge area with mugs of Jitters coffee. Caitlin had thought it would be a good idea to explain to Nora exactly what had happened, and Nora was more than eager to know all of the details.

Barry nodded in answer to her question. “Yeah,” he agreed. “When you came back here, your mom was Iris.... at least, I think she was. It’s all kind of fading.”

“It was Iris,” Caitlin confirmed, though things in her head were starting to disappear, too. It was an odd sensation, like she suddenly couldn’t remember something, but couldn’t recall what it was that she was trying to remember. 

But Caitlin _did_ know that it was Iris who had originally been Nora’s mother. It could have been that, as a scientist, her memory was just better than most people’s. But there was also the fact that Iris would have been the only woman to make sense as Nora’s old mom. She was one of the only females that Barry knew at the moment, and beyond that, the only one he had ever had a serious relationship with.

“So you guys, like, aren’t even together? Like married?” Nora continued. “And I influence your _very first kiss_? Sooooo schway.”

Caitlin and Barry glanced at each other, before quickly looking away. Time travel was tricky. Nora’s mind seemed to be completely wiped off nearly all the original memories that Barry and Caitlin were quickly loosing, replaced with new ones where Caitlin was her mom, and had always been her mom. 

Relationships were tricky, too. Barry and Caitlin hadn’t talked much about what had happened that afternoon, besides giving Nora the run down. Caitlin felt very strange about the whole thing. She had, of course, wanted to kiss Barry more than anything, but it felt rushed. Forced. It had to be done, to save Nora’s life, but Caitlin would have wished for it to go a bit different.

They were still getting used to each other again, for starters. Barry had been gone from Caitlin’s life (and she from his) for a long time. He had been in a serious relationship with Iris, and while it had been going on half a year since they split up, he still wasn’t sure if he wanted a new romance just yet. If he had to pick anyone, it would be Caitlin... but things were just incredibly complicated at the moment, and the kiss hadn’t helped matters.

Once Nora was satisfied with their report of the events before her transformation, she skipped off to go get to know her reflection a little more. Caitlin and Barry sat, looking at one another.

Silence fell.

“So,” Barry said finally. “How’re you feeling about... all of this?”

Caitlin drew in a slow breath. “Um....” she started, before stopping and trying again. “I don’t.... I don’t really know, Barry. This is all just really sudden and confusing and.... I guess I just don’t want to rush into anything. But we kind of have to, don’t we? Nora is our daughter. The future’s cemented again.”

“Hey,” Barry said gently, reaching over and putting a hand on her arm. “There is nothing here for you to worry about rushing into, okay? Like I said, we can go as slow as you need.”

Caitlin nodded and little but stood up. His hand fell awkwardly from her arm and she couldn’t quite look him in the face. “I’m going to take a walk, okay?” she told him. “Clear my head.”

“Oh, okay,” Barry replied, unable to hide the confusion and slight hurt in his voice.

Caitlin made for the exit.


	2. Chapter 2

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Author’s Note: Time for some Cisco/Caitlin action! We haven’t seen much of that in this story yet, though at least there’s plenty of it in the show :)

November was Caitlin’s favorite month. She loved the brisk, cool air and watching as the leaves slowly turned different fiery colors. She loved curling up under comforters and fleece blankets, and turning on her fake fireplace at night while she nursed a glass of wine on the couch and read classic books like To Kill a Mockingbird.

As she walked down the street, wrapped in a scarf and a hat with her hands tucked in her pockets for warmth, she took a long, deep breath of the nice-smelling air. The few trees scattered around downtown Central City had started to drop their leaves, and they crunched as Caitlin stepped through them. 

She hadn’t been walking very long, lost in her thoughts, when a voice called after her, “Caitlin, wait up!”

Caitlin stopped reluctantly and turned around. “Hey, Cisco,” she greeted with a slight smile. “Fancy seeing you here.”

He grinned, falling into step beside her and mirroring her position of hands stuffed in pockets and feet scuffing the crunchy brown leaves scattered on the sidewalk. “Hey, I caught a vibe of you being sad,” he told her with a shrug. “Our minds and auras are totally connected, us being being besties and all.”

Caitlin laughed, tilting her head up to watch a couple of clouds floating across the brilliantly blue sky. Fall was beautiful. 

“So, what’s up?” Cisco continued, nudging her shoulder with his own. “Why has Frosty started to melt?”

Caitlin sighed, the smile fading from her face a little even as Cisco tried to make her laugh with his joke. “You know how...” She paused and tried to collect her thoughts. “Half the time, I feel like everyone is obsessed with the fact that the future can change and that we’re going to change it,” she said instead. “Like when Barry saw Iris die, or how we’re convinced that we’re going to be able to prevent the news in the article that’s been looming over our heads since nearly day one. And then the other half of the time, we’re convinced that the future is stuck and cemented. Iris saw the last name on the bi-line on the news article, and thought that, because she was a West-Allen in the future, that meant she was going to end up with Barry with 100 percent certainty. And then when we found out that she put the speed dampening chip in Nora, she was so sure that that was going to happen, no matter what she did.

‘I don’t know what’s worse,” Caitlin continued. “Thinking that the future is set and, even if I decide I don’t want to be with Barry, I have to be because that’s what has to happen.... or that the future is in flux, and we might go through the whole Nora starting to vanish from the timeline thing all over again if we make a mistake or one of us changes our minds about our feelings.”

“Or, you could look at it this way,” Cisco suggested. “That there’s a sort of comfort in knowing that, eventually, you will end up with an amazing guy and an awesome daughter. Or, if the future is in flux, you have the free will to decide what happens with the two of you.” 

Caitlin blinked, lips pursing slightly. “I... hadn’t actually thought about it that way,” she admitted, glancing over at Cisco wonderingly. “That’s kind of comforting.”

Cisco grinned. “Hey, you know me, I’m a genius with tech _and_ words,” he joked, before sobering back up a little. “You should probably talk to Barry about all of this, though. Last I saw him he was sitting in a swivel chair _not swiveling_ and staring at a spot on the floor.”

Caitlin squinted at him. “Did you _really_ vibe me?” she asked suspiciously. “Or..”

“Okay, it may have been half-vibe-half-intuition-half-Barry,” he admitted.

“That’s too many halfs, Cisco.”

“Well, technically there’s two of you so I could have four halfs,” Cisco countered. “...That made more sense before I said it.”

Caitlin laughed a little. “Yes, I’ll talk to him,” she promised, answering his earlier question. “I feel so bad for suddenly having all these doubts about this. It’s not that I don’t like him anymore...”

“Caitlin,” Cisco stopped her, putting a hand on her shoulder. “I know you. I know Barry. I’ve known _you guys_ for over four years. And if I know anything at all..... this is more than a ‘like’, or a ‘crush’.”

Her eyes dropped. “Then I should know what to do!” she exclaimed. “If I... if I loved him Cisco, I would want to be with him one-hundred and ten percent.”

Cisco smiled faintly and put his arm around her shoulders as they continued walking. “That’s too many percents.”


	3. Chapter 3

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Okkkk, time to start getting a little more in-depth with the plot now that everything's all set up :)

Barry met Caitlin in the hallway when she came up the elevator from the outside exit door, but not for the reason she expected.

“I was just thinking,” he said, falling into quick step beside her as he turned and headed back toward the Cortex. “If Nora is your daughter, how come she doesn’t have cold powers?” 

Caitlin frowned. “Um... genetics? I mean, she doesn’t have green eyes and you do.”

“No, but she has blue lightning,” Barry pressed.

“And if I somehow got speed, I guess my lightning would be blue, like how Iris’ was purple and it rubbed off on Nora,” Caitlin shrugged. “I don’t understand why you’re so concerned about this.”

Barry looked suddenly guilty. “I just.... well, I couldn’t help remembering that in the original timeline... Iris had put a speed dampening chip in Nora.”

Caitlin’s eyebrows went up. “And... you think that I put a cold dampening something in Nora? But Barry, we learned that my powers came from my father’s cure because I showed signs of ALS.”

“Yeah, I know, I know,” Barry rubbed the back of his neck. “I just.... I’m starting to forget it, but I remember how much resentment Nora held for Iris. I don’t want that to happen with the two of you.”

“I would like to think that I wouldn’t hide her powers from her,” Caitlin said. “But... well, I suppose that if I didn’t want her to have to deal with Killer Frost like I had to... it wouldn’t be so off. But if there _is_ some sort of power dampening in her, how would it not effect her speed?”

Barry shrugged. “I’ve got no clue,” he admitted. “I mean, it would probably come down to Killer Frost being a genetic thing, not Dark Matter.”

Caitlin’s mouth twisted to the side. “To be honest.... I’d say we deal with one problem at a time,” she said softly.

His eyebrows furrowed. “What problem are we dealing with now?”

She glanced down, rubbing her hands together and picking at a loose frayed edge on one nail. “Us.”

“Oh,” Barry mumbled. “We’re a.... problem?”

“No, no, I didn’t mean it like that,” Caitlin assured him quickly. “I just meant that.... well, we should talk. About all of this. Sooner, rather than later, please?”

“Yeah, yeah, of course,” Barry agreed, nodding. He checked his watch. “You wanna go get a early dinner at Big Belly Burger? It’s Thursday; there shouldn’t be much of a crowd.”

She nodded, and the two of them made a quick u-turn in the hallway and started back for the elevators. Once they got outside, Barry picked her up and ran the two of them to the restaurant. Soon they were seated in the cushy yellow, white and maroon Big Belly Burger booths with their meals. Barry looked up at her.

“Alright,” he said. “You go first.”

She nodded, taking a slow sip of her milkshake to allow herself to collect her thoughts. “So, um.... I was talking with Cisco this afternoon about.... all of this. And I don’t think I’ve been quite fair to you.”

Barry tilted his head, ate a french fry, and waited for her to continue. 

“I have a lot of belief in consent,” Caitlin continued. “And in free choice. I’ve never liked it when we start to let ourselves be controlled by the glimpses of the future we sometimes get. Some people may take comfort in knowing what happens later in their lives, but I just feel like.... well, what’s the point of living if you don’t have control over the outcome?”

“But you _do_ have control over the outcome,” Barry told her gently. “Cait... this thing between us... it doesn’t _have_ to happen. It’s like everything that went down with Iris: Nora may have come to our present while she was her daughter, but now the future has changed. It could change again.”

“That’s the thing,” Caitlin said. “I don’t _want_ it to change again. I want this, Barry- it’s like I told you when Nora was starting to vanish from existence. I want _us_. I wouldn’t trade _us_ for anything in the world.”

“Than what’s the problem?”

“I don’t know,” Caitlin sighed, running her hand across her forehead, pushing her hair back. A drop of condensation rolled down the glass her milkshake was in and she snagged it with her finger, watching the water droplet glisten on her skin before it slid down and landed on the table. “I guess I just wanted to have a normal relationship for once. Not one that’s been broken by a painful not-death-turned-actually-death, or one where my boyfriend tried to kill everyone I care about, or one that’s predetermined by a girl from the future saying that I and a man who’s not even my boyfriend are her parents.”

Barry face scrunched. “Would it help if I asked you to be my girlfriend?”

Despite herself, Caitlin laughed. Barry grinned, reaching forward and taking her hand. “Our lives are always going to be crazy,” he told her softly. “Which means are love-lives are, too. it’s one of the things all of us agreed to when we became superheroes. We’re not going to be normal, Caitlin; we never were. And honestly, the chances of us working out are like getting struck by lightning and surviving.”

“But you did that,” Caitlin murmured, intertwining their fingers. “And came out even stronger than before.”

“Exactly,” Barry agreed, stroking the top of her hand with his thumb. “And if I can get struck by lightning and come out alive, then we can figure out a way to push through all the madness and make us work, too.”


	4. Chapter 4

It had been a couple days since Barry and Caitlin’s talk in Big Belly Burger, and already they had nearly forgotten the original universe that Nora had first come into. Caitlin had taken the liberty of writing all that they could recall down, just because it felt strange to not be able to remember a life they had lived, but she didn’t remind herself of the other-past very much. It was nice to be able to move on and have a clean slate, where Nora was her daughter and had always been her daughter.

Occasionally, mostly at night and through dreams, memories would come to her. Just last night she had remembered (for the first time) the night Nora had showed up at Joe’s house. 

_“So you’re saying you’re our daughter,” Barry said, giving a young woman standing in the entranceway of the Wests‘ house a bewildered look._

_“From the future,” Iris added._

_Nora nodded, then hesitated. “Well... not your daughter,” she explained, looking at Iris._

_Iris‘ eyebrows went up. “Excuse me?”_

_“I’m... Caitlin’s daughter. From the future. My name’s Nora. Hi.”_

_Dead silence reigned in the room._

_“Anyone need a refill?” Cisco said finally. Caitlin all but shoved her glass in his face._

_Nora’s mouth scrunched to the side. “Yeah, so I know this is a little weird ‘cause like..... Dad and Aunt Iris are still together, aren’t they? Ooh shrap, that’s awkward.” She giggled nervously. “But like, seriously.... I’m Nora Snow Allen, from the future... and I might have made a tiny little mistake that I totally can’t fix.”_

_Caitlin opened her mouth a few times, but nothing came out on the first couple of tries. Finally she managed a squeaky, “Okay! Uh, Barry, can we-”_

_“Yeah, yup, uh huh,” Barry said, nodding vigorously. “Out-”_

_“Outside, yep,” Caitlin agreed, and the two of them ran for the door._

_Iris stared after them, her face a mask of totally disbelief. Then she set down her glass with a loud clunk and followed them._

_“Okay, what exactly is going on?” she asked as she shut the door behind the three of them._

_Barry and Caitlin glanced up at her, unable stop feeling guilty.... though they had no reason to. “Honestly, Iris,” Caitlin started. “I don’t-”_

_“I was asking him,” Iris interrupted, giving Barry a look. “She’s your daughter?”_

_“Well, we don’t know for sure,” Barry tried. “I mean, we’ll have to do a DNA test and everything but-”_

_Iris ran her hand through her hair. “I just... I thought that.... you and I.... but what about the news article? The one that has Iris West-Allen on the bi-line?”_

_Caitlin tried again. “I mean... the future’s always in flux, right?” she said, shrugging. “The only thing that’s certain is that everything we do is constantly changing things, save for a couple of set moments that shape history and the future.”_

_Barry nodded. “It wouldn’t be the first time that news article has changed,” he reminded Iris. “I mean, don’t get me wrong- I’m as shocked about all of this as you are, but.... I mean, the future could change again, right? Nora could be our daughter if we stay together, right?”_

_Iris sat down heavily, running her hand through her hair. “I mean... I guess things between us...” She glanced up sharply at Caitlin and forced a tight smile._

_Caitlin cleared her throat awkwardly. “Look... I’m just going to head back inside,” she said. “I’ll get Cisco to breach Nora and I to STAR Labs and I can run a DNA test. Then we can know for sure if she’s telling the truth.”_

_Barry nodded, laying a hand on her arm for a second. “Be careful,” he warned. “We’ve had a lot of visitors that we can’t exactly trust over the years.”_

_Caitlin nodded, before hurrying inside.  
_  
That was about how the memory had ended. Things after that night had started changing in all of their memories, too. Barry and Iris had become more distant quicker, Iris not able to cope with the fact that Nora wasn’t her and Barry’s daughter, and convinced that if that was the truth it couldn’t possibly be changed. For the next few weeks after that, things remained the same. Barry was still neglectful of Caitlin and, by connection, Cisco.... but it was for a different reason. He had been almost bitter, some unconscious part of his brain blaming her for his ruined relationship with Iris.

Nora and Caitlin, too, had gotten off to a slightly more awkward start. Still, after conversations had been had about why everything was so strange (Caitlin had never expected someone to come from the future and visit them... much less her own daughter with _Barry_ , of all people, as the father), they fell into the natural rhythm they had had in the original timeline. 

About a month after things with Iris got rocky, Barry started spending more time with Caitlin and Cisco. Iris began to work more with her reporting job than as the leader of the Team, and OG Team Flash was reborn. Caitlin loved it. She hadn’t realized how much she had missed what she thought fondly of “the old days” until she finally got them back.

Still trying to pull up the last details from her dream the night before, Caitlin wandered into the Cortex and almost bumped into Nora.

“Oh! Sorry, mom,” Nora apologized, leaping out of the way.

Even as her memories returned, Caitlin still wasn’t quite used to the whole ‘mom’ thing. She smiled. “No worries, Nora,” she said, before she paused. 

“What is it?” Nora asked, frowning. “Do I have chocolate on my face? I swear it’s Nutella I know that you think chocolate makes me hyper-”

“No, no, it’s not that,” Caitlin interrupted quickly. “Your hair....”

In seconds Nora had pulled out her phone and was inspecting herself in the screen. “What’s wrong with it?” she frowned. “Is it something in the back?”

“No... it’s white.” Caitlin peered at it, brushing a couple of Nora’s short locks back from her face. “I could have sworn there were only a few strands that were white this morning.”

Nora looked more closely at her fuzzy selfie-reflection. “Huh,” she muttered. “You know, you’re right.”

“Ooh, are we taking selfies?”

Barry had just flashed into the Cortex, making both girls jump. 

“Oh, hey dad,” Nora said. “No, we were just looking at my hair.”

“Your hair?” Barry’s eyebrows creased in confusion. “It looks fine to me. Are you going to get it cut or something?”

“No, look at it, Barry,” Caitlin pressed. “It’s _much_ whiter than it was this morning.”

“Oh,” he murmured. “Do you think....”

Nora finally put down her phone, eyes wide. “Is this like what happened to mom?” she asked, a mixture of horror and wonder coloring her voice. “Am I getting ice powers?”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Hmmmm... What do YOU think??


	5. Chapter 5

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Just as a general PSA, I'm probably going to be posting less at least for a little while... I know for a stretch of time I was cross-posting a TON but school has started now and I'm literally _swamped_. I'll try not to neglect this story, partially because it's already done so I, at least, won't have to write it, but I just wanted to give y'all a heads up :)

“I am getting the oddest sense of deja-vu from this,” Caitlin muttered as she herded Nora (with Barry trailing dutifully behind) into her lab. “Okay, you. If you feel any sort of anger, aggression, or cold you tell me or Barry _immediately_ , understand?”

“Okay, mom,” Nora sighed, rolling her eyes. 

Barry gave her a look. “Don’t ‘okay, mom’ Caitlin,” he scolded. “She’s doing what she can to make sure an evil version of you doesn’t take over your body.”

Nora looked slightly chagrined. “Sorry,” she sighed. “But this just doesn’t make any sense! If I had cold powers, wouldn’t it have showed up when you guys started changing the future and first saw my white hairs? Mom did tests then and she said it was just that I had white hair, like for the same reason I had brown hair like Barry’s. The Frost side of mom just rubbed off on me.”

Caitlin tucked her hair behind her ear and took a sample of Nora’s blood. The speedster winced. “Warning next time?”

“I don’t give any of my patients warnings,” she said with a slight smirk. “They have tendencies to speed out of the room on reflex.”

Nora raised her eyebrow. “That is _so_ a story I need to hear sometime.”

“To answer your question,” Barry said, quickly turning the conversation away from himself and a most likely embarrassing topic. “Changing time is complicated. Some changes just take awhile to catch up.”

Nora nodded as Caitlin took her temperature, blood pressure and pulse, jotting it all down on her tablet. “It’s like when you guys defeated Savitar,” she agreed. “But he took like twenty-four hours for the paradox that caused him to disappear to catch up to him.”

“Exactly,” Caitlin agreed. She had her back to them, focused on the tests she was putting Nora’s blood through. “You know, it really is convenient that the Flash museum was so detailed about our lives. We really don’t have to fill you in on _anything_.”

“Yeah,” Nora agreed, before she let out a choked noise.

Caitlin turned around. “Nora? Are you alright?”

Nora blinked, and in one second, her eyes had turned blue and her hair went completely white. 

“Ohhh, boy,” Barry garbled, stumbling backwards as the transformed Nora looked around at the both of them.

“Yoooo....” Nora muttered, staring at her hands. Her fingernails had gone blue, like she had cut off her circulation or painted them with a very absorbent nail-polish. “I think the future caught up.”

“But...” Caitlin squinted, looking at Nora in confusion. “But you’re not... it’s still you.”

“Yeah, that’s odd,” Barry agreed. “When Caitlin transforms, it’s like a completely separate person. I mean, same appearance... mostly. But same heart and brain and everything, but a completely different personality”

Nora shook her head slowly, before a grin crossed her face. “Wait, so.... like, I have speed powers _and_ cold powers? Dude, that’s so schway! Cold powers are like the most powerful things ever... and I’m a speedster!”

Caitlin opened her mouth a couple times before deciding what she wanted to say. “It’s really remarkable,” she agreed. “And it came on suddenly, too. Your temperature, heart rate, and blood pressure were all normal, compared to mine when I turn into Frost.”

In seconds, she was over by Nora’s side and taking another blood sample. “Ow!” Nora cried. “Warning!”

“We’ve been over this,” Caitlin said patiently. “When I give a warning-”

“People run off, yeah, I know,” Nora sighed. “But I’m too _curious_ to run off. What’s the verdict, doc?”

Caitlin laughed slightly at the nickname. “I’m going to need to run some tests,” she told Nora, before glancing up at Barry. “Could you maybe keep an eye on her while I take care of this? If anything strange- or anything at all- happens, let me know.”

“On it,” he agreed, before looking back at his daughter. “Alright, Nora, let’s let your mother work. How does some ice-cream sound to you?”

“Ooh, I could go for something cold,” Nora grinned agreeably. “Let’s go.”

They were about to run out when an alarm started blaring and Cisco raced into the room. “Meta attack downtown!” he cried, before catching sight of Nora. “Whoooooa!! You’re Frosty, now, too?”

Nora grinned. “I guess so!” she exclaimed. “Alrighty, I’m ready to give these new powers a whirl.”

Caitlin glanced over, about to protest, but Barry gave her an endearing smile. “C’mon, Cait, please? I promise I’ll look after her and bring her straight back if anything goes South.”

Against her better judgement, Caitlin nodded. “Fine,” she sighed. “Now run, you Snow-Allens, run.”


	6. Chapter 6

Barry and Nora skidded to a stop at the street Cisco directed them to. Barry frowned, looking around. 

“There’s nothing here,” he said, speaking into the com. “You sure that alert was legit, Cisco?”

“Uh....” Cisco fumbled with his phone for a second. “Someone took a video of a car being thrown into the air by what looked like nothing. Either they’ve got some super good editing and enough money to smash an entire car, or there’s a meta.”

Nora nodded. “So, maybe an invisible meta?” she proposed. “Or.... a meta that can control super-strong air currents- _oof_!”

She cut herself off with a grunt of shock and pain and went sprawling. On Caitlin’s body scan, there was a flare of red at her back. “Nora?” she asked, concerned. Being a doctor made it so that she was _always_ concerned. Being a mother made it about thirteen times worse. “Are you alright?”

Nora had already flipped onto her back and thrust out her hands. A stream of ice shot from them, but didn’t do much more than cover an innocent car parked on the side of the road with a thin layer of crunchy frost. “Yeah, I’m fine,” she told her mother. “These powers are _schway_.”

Caitlin shook her head in amusement, sitting back. A second later Barry, too, was thrown foreword onto the ground. “Owwwww....” he wheezed. “Nora! Run around and see if you can catch anyone hiding and controlling this invisible force.”

“Got it,” Nora agreed, leaping to her feet. 

Caitlin, too, leapt to her feet. On her screen, Nora’s temperature had just taken a dramatic dip. “Wait, don’t-” she started, but it was too late. Nora had just launched into super speed.

Everything was fine for about a millisecond. Then her lightning sputtered and blew out, replaced by a cloud of frost. Nora stumbled, speed suddenly gone, and collapsed.

“Barry!” Caitlin cried. “Get her out of there!”

Barry shoved himself to his feet, grabbed his daughter, and ran. 

By the time he slowed to a fast walk outside of the Cortex, Nora was already waking up. “I’m fine,” she insisted, wiggling out of Barry’s arms and standing on her own. “Seriously, dad, I’m okay.”

“Yeah, well, the last time you passed out unexpectedly like that, you almost blinked out of existence,” Barry said, face tight. “So I’m sorry if I’m a little bit concerned.”

“I think I might know what the problem is,” Caitlin said, coming down from her lab to meet them. “I wasn’t able to finish my tests because of the meta attack, but what I’ve figured out is just simple science.”

She led Barry and Nora into her lab and Nora sat down on one of the gurneys, listening.

“Speed and cold are opposites,” Caitlin started.

Nora giggled. “That’s what you said on your wedding invite,” she told them with a grin. “Speed and cold are opposites, but opposites attract: It’s called chemistry.”

Caitlin’s eyebrows went up and she looked at Barry. “Hey, that’s pretty good. Write that down, would you?”

Barry grinned, shaking his head in amusement, but did as he was told.

“Anyway,” Caitlin continued. “When you use your speed, everything speeds up, not just you. Your cells, your metabolism, your regenerative capabilities.... even your temperature goes up. But when you have cold powers, like me.... well, everything slows down, except for the part of your brain that creates adrenaline.”

“Which is why Frost comes out when you’re scared or angry,” Nora agreed.

“Exactly,” Caitlin nodded. “So, fundamentally, you can’t access both cold _and_ speed powers at the same time, maybe even together at all. Speed and cold are both intense things, but-”

“Wow, another unintentional almost-reference to your own wedding,” Nora interjected, smirking. “In Uncle Cisco’s best-man speech he said that line from Frozen that goes something like- _The hot and the cold are both so intense, put them together it just makes sense_.”

“Heeeey, I didn’t know I could be that clever!” Cisco, who it seemed was eavesdropping on their not-terribly-private conversation from the Cortex, spoke up. “I also didn’t know I’d be able to fit Frozen into my best man speech. Or that I’d be best man.”

Barry snickered. “I’d scold you about revealing too much about the future, but this is just too entertaining.”

“ _Anyway_ ,” Caitlin said again, shaking her head. “Speed and cold are two extremes. It’s like when you throw boiling water out into below-freezing air.”

“It turns into snow,” Nora finished. “Like how my lightning turned into frost when I tried to run.”

“Exactly,” Caitlin agreed, nodding. “Because of the way that our powers affect our bodies, speed and cold powers can’t co-exist in one spot at the same time. Not only that, but your cold powers are going to win out. You’ll only be able to access them, now that they’ve been activated once. It’s why you were originally able to run to the crime scene.”

Nora slumped, before her face lifted hopefully. “But you can fix it, right?” she asked eagerly. “Uncle Cisco, you can fix it!”

“I dunno, kiddo,” Cisco admitted, stepping up into Caitlin’s lab. “You want me to make something so you can use your speed and cold powers at the same time?”

“You’re a genius, Uncle C, I’m sure you can do it!” Nora said brightly. She leapt up off the gurney. “Hey, dad, you promised me ice cream.”

“Uh, there’s some in the emergency fridge downstairs I think,” Barry told her distractedly. “I need to talk with your- Caitlin- your mom- I need to talk with Caitlin. For just a minute. Save me some mint chocolate chip?”

“Oh, yeah, okay,” Nora agreed, looking a little disappointed.

She left the OG Team Flash alone. Barry ran a hand through his hair. “Alright.... _what are we going to do_?”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Good question, Barry? What do _you_ guys thing they're going to do??


	7. Chapter 7

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Argggghhh!! I'm so so sorry about the long wait (okay i know a week isn't technically long but these chapters are so short that I like to post them pretty rapid-fire). I literally haven't been on my computer for things other than schoolwork for like... more that two minutes every day. But here is a chapter and I hope the next one can come quickly!

It had been a couple days. The odd, invisible force hadn’t been seen since attacking Nora and Barry in the street, though no one thought very much off it. Cisco and Caitlin were pretty focused on what seemed to be their most pressing issue: Nora’s powers.

After the third day of minimal sleep and trying everything they could think of, Caitlin got in her car and drove to Barry’s loft. He was starting to consider moving, considering that he had an entire penthouse apartment all to himself, but he couldn’t quite bring himself to part with the space, or the memories.

“It’s a good thing we got the loft before all the changes to the timeline with Nora,” he had commented to Caitlin a couple days ago. “Or else I might have showed up one night only to remember that I didn’t actually live there and never had.”

The changes in the timeline were still tripping with them. Caitlin was starting to get used to it, but part of her felt constantly nostalgic for something, though she could never figure out quite what it was. 

That night, there was light coming out from under the crack of Barry’s door and she could hear the television playing as she knocked. Barry opened it up almost immediately and grinned at her. “Hey, Cait! What’s going on?”

“I’ve.... got some news,” Caitlins started.

His smiled immediately faded, and she realized how grave she must sound. She tried again. “Can I come in?”

Barry nodded and opened up his door wider, leading her inside. She seated herself on the couch while he poured them both glasses of wine. Caitlin found the television remote lying on the coffee table and turned the noise down a little so it wouldn’t interrupt them.

“Okay,” Barry said, handing her her wine and sitting down next to her on the couch. With one leg crossed over the other, left ankle on right knee, and his arm resting on the back of the couch while he faced her, it made Caitlin sad that she wasn’t here for a night of Netflix and wine and some snuggling. “What’s going on?”

Caitlin cleared her throat. “Cisco and I.... well, we’ve tried nearly everything.”

“Is this about Nora’s powers?” Barry asked.

She frowned. “What else would it be about?”

Barry swirled his wine around his glass a couple of times and shrugged. “I dunno, I thought it might be about us. I mean, we talked but... nothing’s really... happened.”

“Shoulda known a speedster would want to move fast,” Caitlin teased, smiling at him. She nudged his knee with her own. “I promise you, Barry, when everything gets a bit more sorted out I would love to-”

Barry cut her off with a groan, setting his glass down on the table. “I don’t mean to be impatient,” he said, looking at her imploringly. “But seriously Caitlin, when is anything _ever_ going to calm down or get sorted out or slow down or anything like that? Our lives are _fast_. They’re crazy. If I’ve learned anything it’s that we have to make time for stuff while we can, instead of waiting for the right mome-”

Caitlin interrupted him by leaning forward and kissing him. Barry cupped her face with one hand, eyes falling closed.

“There,” Caitlin whispered when she pulled back. “No waiting for the right moment.”

“I didn’t mean to force you into that,” Barry murmured, almost regretfully, though the bliss on his face said otherwise. 

“You didn’t,” Caitlin assured him. “And I swear to you: As soon as we get a moment we can take a look at the two of us and figure out what’s next in our lives. But right now, I need to tell you about what’s going on with Nora and her powers.”

“Yeah, yeah, of course,” Barry agreed, picking his wine back up.

“Alright. As I said, Cisco and I have tried everything we can think off. Every test we’ve run, every molecular edit we’ve tried- even dangerous ones.... it’s all leading back to the same solution: Speed and cold powers can’t co-exist at one time, in the same body.”

Barry nodded, shoulders slumping. “I was afraid of that,” he sighed. “Nora’s not going to be happy.”

“We have, however, figured out one thing,” Caitlin continued pointedly, before he got too hopeless. “Nora can choose which power she keeps. Originally, cold powers would have overcome her speed. But Cisco and I have isolated a certain kind of power-dampener that should, hypothetically, keep her atoms from slowing down in the way that is characteristic to having cold powers.”

Barry nodded. “When should we tell her?”

“I’d say tomorrow,” Caitlin said. “No sense keeping worrying her about it tonight.” She glanced at the time and yawned. “I need to be heading home, too. It’s been a long week.”

“I can take you home, if you’d like,” Barry offered.

“Thanks, Barry, that‘d be nice,” Caitlin smiled. 

She set her wine glass down on the coffee table, where it would remain for the rest of the evening, making yet another ring on the wood as Barry brought Caitlin home.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> OKAY! So everything’s starting to wrap up. I hope you like this chapter- it’s one of my favs :D


	8. Chapter 8

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I had intended this to be the last chapter but I ended up hating it so you guys get one more after this XD
> 
> By the way, thanks for all the support! It is ever-appreciated :)

Caitlin had intended to tell Nora the update on her powers first thing the next morning, but when she arrived at STAR Labs, Cisco was in a tizzy. “The metahuman’s back!” he cried, rushing from monitor to monitor. “Barry’s gotta get out there!”

Caitlin quickly pressed the alert on her phone and Barry flashed into the room a second later. “What’s going on?” he demanded urgently.

“Meta’s struck again,” Cisco said. 

Nora jogged into the room. “Hey!” she greeted. “Did I hear the word meta?”

“Yes,” Caitlin said, exchanging a glance with Barry. “But you have to stay here, Nora. We can have another incident like we did the last time you went into the field. What if the meta took advantage of you?”

“ _Mom_ ,” Nora groaned. “I’m not a liability!”

“I never said that-”

“I’ll be fine to go out,” Nora interrupted.

Barry gave her a look. “No you will not, young lady.”

“Dad-”

“ _No_ ,” he said firmly. “If Caitlin says it’s not a good idea, then it’s not a good idea. Whenever it comes to our health, she knows best.”

Caitlin smiled. “Can I get that in writing?” she teased. 

Barry sighed dramatically. “And I was taking your side, too.”

“Okaaaaay, I get you guys are married in the future but we have a meta to take care of so _focus, please_ ,” Cisco interjected.

“I’ll watch over the health readings!” Nora called, running over to the monitor that Caitlin usually sat at and giving her mother a significant look. She seemed like she wasn’t going to hold a grudge against her parents benching her, which relieved Caitlin. 

“Wait, why can’t Caitlin do it?” Barry asked, frowning in confusion.

“I’m sorry,” a new voice spoke up. Nora grinned widely as Barry jumped around to find Frost standing where Caitlin had been a second before, inspecting her nails. “But Caitlin Snow can’t come to the phone right now.” She smirked up at Barry and winked. “Need a second hand in the field? Preferably a chilly one?”

Barry shook his head fondly. “There’s always room out there for you, Frosty,” he told her.

Frost grinned. “Aw, I didn’t know you cared, handsome.”

“Yes you did.”

“GUYS!” Cisco yelled. “Metahuman?! Hurting people?! Does no one remember this?!”

“Sorry!” both Barry and Frost shouted back, before Barry picked up Frost and ran them both away.

Nora bounced eagerly in her seat. “Here we go!” she chirped. “Mom and Dad are gonna rock it in the field! They are _such_ a power couple and it’s so totally schway.”

Cisco snorted. “Power couple. I like that.”

Barry slowed to a stop at the scene of the crime, setting Frost down. Both of them looked around. “It’s just like last time,” Frost reported. “Empt- _oof_!”

She, like Barry and Nora had been a couple days ago, was knocked forward by an invisible force. She tumbled across the pavement, but her reflexes were faster than Nora’s. She twisted mid-fall and shot a spray of ice in the direction of her “attacker”. For a second, a shape outlined: nothing remotely humanoid, more just a blob in the air before it abruptly vanished and the ice fell to the ground.

Frost exchanged bewildered glances with Barry, but Cisco had figured it out. “Eureka!” he cried, leaping up from his desk. “The meta is creating matter!”

“That’s impossible,” Barry replied, on high alert, waiting for his turn to be shoved to the ground by something he couldn’t see. “In science you can’t create or destroy matter-”

“Okay, then, he’s moving from somewhere else,” Cisco interrupted. “Either way, there’s suddenly more matter than the air can handle in one space, and so it’s getting abruptly shoved out of the way. That creates the force that’s knocking you guys down.”

“And then he takes it away and puts it back in its original place,” Frost finished. “Which is why my ice fell.”

“Exactly.”

“So how do we stop someone who moves matter invisibly and unexpectedly?” Barry asked desperately. It was unnerving to know that at any second he could be knocked to the ground by nothing more than a shoved-away current of air. 

“We find who’s causing it,” Frost said, leaping to her feet. “Run a perimeter.”

Barry nodded and set off, only to trip a second later. “How-?” he asked after her had stopped rolling along the ground. “I was moving at super speed!”

“Sorry honey, guess the meta’s just faster than you,” Frost shrugged, winking at him.

“Okay!” Nora spoke up from the coms. “We need a plan. There’s two of you. The meta probably can’t handle both of you at the same time, right? Barry, try your best to run in an unpredictable pattern. You _are_ moving at super speed, so the meta won’t be able to put blockades in front of you. And Frost.... well as soon as Barry finds the meta then you’re going to need to attack as one.”

“Got it,” Frost agreed, before being knocked to the ground again. She quickly stood up and made a protective barrier out of ice around herself.

“I see someone!” Barry cried, and Frost broke through the barrier and started running. 

“Frost, use your ice!” Cisco suggested. “Put it out in front of you so it’ll show you wherever the air is going to solidify.”

Frost nodded, and followed Barry around the corner of a building. 

A young woman, with jet blue hair and a nose piercing, let out a shriek when she saw the two of them, and threw up her hands. “I’m sorry!” she squealed, knocking Barry and Frost back with what seemed to be a solid wall of air. “I didn’t mean to hurt anyone with the car; it was just a stupid dare!”

Frost rolled her eyes and Barry quickly flashed up the side of the building and around behind the metahuman. In seconds, she had cuffs strapped around her wrists and a deep pout on her face. 

“Who dares someone else to throw a car into the air?” Frost asked. 

“It wasn’t to throw a car in the air,” the woman groaned. “It was just to wreck it. And then you guys showed up and I realized that you were gonna lock me up in your special secret prison all the metas talk about, and I _really_ didn’t want that.”

“So you decided to try and take us out?” Barry asked, raising an eyebrow. “Well, I hate to disappoint, but you are probably one of the easier metahumans we’ve had to catch this year.”

“ _Ugh_ ,” the woman groaned. “I just discovered these powers, okay? I don’t even get how they work yet. It was just one stupid car.”

“Oookay, we’re going to head to our ‘special prison’ now,” Barry muttered, rolling his eyes at Frost over the woman’s head and flashing off.


	9. Chapter 9

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Guys omg I am SO SORRY!! For whatever crazy reason, I thought I had finished posting this story and I DIDN'T, I completely forgot to post the last chapter!! GAH!! Well here it is now, and the third part of the trilogy will hopefully be coming soon :)

Once the woman (who hadn’t even gotten the accomplishment of a name from Cisco) was secured in the Pipeline, and Caitlin had taken back over her body, she, Barry and Nora all sat down to have a talk.

“So, what’s the deal?” Nora asked, fidgeting with either nerves or excitement, or maybe a bit of both. “Can I keep both my powers?”

Caitlin let out a sigh. “I really am sorry, Nora, but no. Cisco and I looked at the problem for _days_ , but I just don’t think there’s a way to have both speed and cold powers in one body. It defies all the rules of metahuman powers, and science, that we’ve discovered over the years.”

Nora nodded, shoulders slumping. “I kind of figured that was going to happen,” she sighed. “So I don’t..... I don’t have any powers anymore? At all?”

Caitlin was glad, at least, to give her some good news. “Now, I didn’t say that,” she said with a faint smile. “Cisco and I _were_ able to figure out a half-dampener for your powers. Once we give it to you, you’ll be able to have just one power.... of your choice.”

Nora’s eyes lit up. “Oh!” she exclaimed, before her face fell again. “Oh.”

“What’s with the disappointment?” Barry asked, brow furrowing. “We thought you’d be happy about that.”

“Oh, I am, definitely,” Nora assured him, trying for a smile. “But I just.... well... I’ll have to pick. Between the two powers. Which is kind of like having to pick between you guys.”

There was a short silence, before Caitlin reached out a hand and put it on Nora’s knee. “Honey, by picking which power you want to keep, you’re not choose between the two of us,” she told her daughter softly. “Neither Barry or I feel defined by our powers. We are definitely different without them, even maybe not fully ourselves. But if you decide that you want to keep your speed, I’m not going to be hurt by that.”

Nora nodded, glancing over at Barry. He put his hand on her other knee. “And I’m not going to be offended if you pick having ice powers,” he told her. “They _are_ pretty cool... no pun intended though it totally should have been.”

“Okay,” Nora agreed, letting out a small breath. “Um, so... ice powers are- are more powerful, maybe, but.... well, I’ve always had speed. And I don’t want to lose that. So I’m going to go with speed.”

Caitlin smiled widely. “I knew you would,” she said fondly, patting Nora’s knee and standing up. “And because I knew you would, Cisco and I already developed a serum that is going to eliminate your ice powers.”

Nora’s eyes lit up. “So I’ll be able to use my speed again?”

“Yep,” Caitlin agreed. She turned around and reached into one of the drawers in her lab desk. When she turned back to Barry and Nora, she was holding a small vial of ice-blue liquid attached to a needle. She carefully turned Nora’s arm over, cleaned it, and then looked up at her. “You’re sure?”

“I’m sure,” Nora told her firmly. Barry reached for her hand, giving it a squeeze, and Caitlin injected the serum.

For a second, nothing happened. Caitlin eyed Nora nervously. There had been no way, of course, to test this serum other than through highly-realistic simulations. She just had to hope very, _very_ hard that the 0.1% of chance that the simulations couldn’t cover wouldn’t turn out to be the death of her daughter. 

Nora’s back suddenly arched and she let out a gasp. Barry jumped to his feet, eyes wide. “What’s going on?” he demanded as Nora’s body began to tremble violently.

“C-c-cold,” she shuddered, curling in on herself and wrapping her arms around her body. 

Caitlin hurried to the gurney and pulled the blankets off of it. She laid Nora down on the bed and bundled her in as many covers as she could find before wrapping her arms around her, rocking her back and forth.

“Caitlin?” Barry asked, sounding scared. “What’s wrong with her? Is she okay?”

“This happened to me when Frost got locked out,” Caitlin said, creating friction with her hands on Nora’s arms. “I was cold for days, though she was still technically in my system so it wasn’t as bad as it is for Nora. She’s a speedster though; she runs warm. She should be okay.”

True to Caitlin’s word, Nora’s shivering was already starting to slow down. She curled into Caitlin’s lap and shut her eyes, brown hair falling across one eye. It was then that Barry noticed that it was indeed _brown_ , almost completely brown, with only two strips of white near the front. 

He sat down heavily on the bed, putting his arms around both Nora and Caitlin. Caitlin was reminded of after Nora had almost disappeared from the time stream, when Barry had gathered them up in the same way. She rested her head on his shoulder, holding Nora tighter.

It was an adjustment. All of this was- the timeline, the powers, Barry and her relationship. But it was something that she wouldn’t give up for the world.

And really, that was all that mattered.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> And there we have itttt :D I hope you guys enjoyed this installation! 
> 
> Now I gotta know... which power would YOU pick to keep?


End file.
